SAN MARINO GP RESULT 1 M Schumacher (Ferrari) 2 F Alonso (Renault) 3 JP Montoya (McLaren) 4 F Massa (Ferrari) 5 K Raikkonen (McLaren) 6 M Webber (Williams) 7 J Button (Honda) 8 G Fisichella (Renault)

Jenson Button has qualified in the top three in all four events in 2006, only to struggle on race day, while Rubens Barrichello has scored just two points.

"The team is incredibly strong and we have a fast car. We need to take the next step," said Fry.

"Certainly we have taken a step in the right direction. Are we competitive with the Renault? Absolutely not."

Report: BBC Five Live's David Croft

Englishman Button has now gone 106 races without a win and met Fry for talks at the team's base in Brackley on Monday.

"It's very clear, if you take out all the problems, we are faster than we were in Australia," said Fry.

I don't know whether it's luck or whether we haven't completely got our act together Jenson Button

"We still need to do more work and we will be hard at it at Silverstone this week."

The meeting came after 26-year-old Button had to settle for seventh place in San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday after a pit stop blunder ended his hopes of finishing on the podium.

The Englishman was waved away by his "lollipop" man before his crew had removed the fuel hose from his car.

He was forced to stop in the pit lane in order to have it removed before he was able to continue, costing him a probable third place.

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"Speed and pace alone is not enough - you can talk like that until the cows come home," said Button.

"We are not getting the results because we are making mistakes and we have to resolve that issue.

"I don't know whether it's luck or whether we haven't completely got our act together. We thought we were ready for this year and we have just made too many mistakes."

Button has the best qualifying record of any driver in F1 since Honda completed their buyout of the BAR team last winter.